


Beware the Sleepless Lion

by FightTheThorn



Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Broken Families, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 02:58:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2050959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FightTheThorn/pseuds/FightTheThorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Under the Red Hood, Jason is, predictably, not doing so well. Thoughts of betrayal plague him into sleepless nights. Dick wants to be there for him, but can he put aside what Jason has done to help him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beware the Sleepless Lion

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't too sure if I captured Jason or Dick's character. There's not a lot to really gauge it, but any comments toward their characterization would be fantastic (feel free to talk about Red Hood and the Outlaws, Under the Red Hood, or anything Jason with me!).
> 
> Everything Jason says comes out in jensen Ackles' voice.

"Can't sleep?" 

Jason growled. He gripped the glass of water in his hand tightly, not turning around to look on the intruder. There wasn’t any reason to. He knew who had broken into his apartment. "A little warning, I _hate_ when people break into my apartment, Dick. Especially you. The least you could do is fucking knock.”

Nightwing smiled, shaking his head as he stood propped up against the beam of the door with his arms folded in front of him. "Aw, you're being cranky."

A small glare over his shoulder followed by walking to the table, Jason pulled out the chair and sat down, lifting his legs up onto the table. 

Dick followed suit, taking the back of a chair across from Jason, twirling it around once, twice, then sitting down on it backwards, resting his arms on the back of the chair and facing Jason. Tonight he wasn’t wearing casual attire, instead wearing his dark blue latex suit as he acted as the vigilante Nightwing.

"I didn't say you could sit down."

"You didn’t say to leave either." 

Jason let out a deep sigh, sipping from his glass. "What do you want, _Dick_?" He looked at his unwelcome guest with a very tired look.

Now Dick could see the bags under Jason's eyes, could see the cold stare grow tired. He hadn't meant to be right when he called Jason cranky. It looked like tonight wasn’t the only instance Jason was up past midnight. He’d been up a lot from the look of his bags under his eyes and how quickly his sarcastic arseholery faded. "I wanted to check up on you."

"You couldn't do that in broad daylight instead of in the dead of night?" Jason snapped, putting the glass down and folding his arms in front of him. 

They never _did_ get along. It wasn’t anything more than just mistakes. Dick would say something, then Jason would, and before they knew it, they were fighting with one another over something, _anything_. Jason usually ended them by leaving. He’s that kind of guy.

"Well..." Dick pursed his lips, "I've actually been watching you for a while." 

"I noticed. Stalker.” Jason shook his head. “Why?"

There was a short pause before Dick spoke, adding on a caring smile. "I've been worried about you since you’ve come back."

Jason scoffed. "'Worried'."

Dick scowled. "Yes, worried."

"Stuff it, Grayson. I come back and I try to kill the Joker. Not to mention I threatened the big bat in town. I pretty much take over all the gangs and drug cartels and you're here ' _worried_ ' about me. Either you think I'm a danger to Gotham or a danger to you or Batman or even myself." He leaned forward a little, trying to control a little of his anger. Although he wasn’t visibly angry, just talking harshly, the water in the glass began to shake. "Am I right?"

Dick shook his head, but he didn’t quite make eye-contact. "You're not completely wrong, no." He forced himself to look at Jason, focused on Jason's face, slowly moving over what he could see of his body. "Initially I wasn't sure you were the Jason I knew." 

"I'm not." Jason answered the question for him, pulling his feet off the table and leaning back, tipping the chair just a little. 

"You're not how I remember, no, but you're still him. And I cared for Jason. I care for you." Dick nodded his head seriously. "We were both Robin. We were both friends... kind of, anyway. We're still friends. Just because we don’t get a long a lot doesn’t mean we can’t be family."

Jason watched him carefully, narrowing his eyes. Dick could feel him sizing him up. "Fine, you checked up on me. Now get out."

Dick had touched a nerve. It was too bad that he’d mentioned too many possible triggers. It wasn’t hard to pin-point the problem though.

Family. 

Jason had never had a good experience with family. No one really had a perfect one, not even with the family Batman had created. After all, his own had been so fucked up and then he comes to Bruce who isn’t exactly the best father figure. He’s better than nothing. 

Another pause.

"Why are you having trouble sleeping?"

Another too long pause for Jason to play off. "I'm not having trouble sleeping. I'm up late because I have a plan to kill the Joker and I need to iron out the details."

"Come on, don't pull that." He threw caution to the wind. "You haven’t been sleeping for months. You look _fucking_ awful."

Jason laughed. “That’s why I wear a Red Hood. Can’t let my enemies see this. Don’t think you’re something special."

Dick’s eyebrows knitted together into a scowl. “Why can’t we have a normal conversation?”

“I honestly don’t think we’re capable of it.” 

“We could be. If we tried.”

“What’s the point? If there’s one thing that ol’ Bruce taught us, it’s how to avoid talking about our ‘feelings’ and what’s ‘troubling’ us.” Jason took the glass and downed it. “I don’t know what you were expecting. You thought that you’d have me at an advantage if you caught me sleepy or unaware?”

Dick shook his head. “There’s no way I can do that if you’re always running on, what I can only imagine is enough sleep to keep you alive and functional, but not enough that you need. You’d be so much harder to deal with if you were actually rested.”

A laugh. It was pure, genuine. Sure, it was at Dick’s expense, but it was comforting to see that Jason was still capable of it.

He swirled the ice around in his glass thoughtfully and let out a sigh. “You’re not going to leave until I tell you why I’m not sleeping, are you?”

Dick shook his head again. 

“Nosy.” 

He chuckled. “So?”

“I…” Jason lifted the glass up, as if he was inspecting it. “I really can’t get the Joker out of my head. The way he killed me and my mother. Whenever I close my eyes I see a crowbar coming at my face. I can remember how many times it came down on me. How my body sounded as it cracked… the pain it sent through me. I can see the bomb ticking down. I can see my mother struggling in her bonds. And…” He shook his head to get rid of the memories. “I can clearly see Batman’s face when I came back and tried to kill that fucker.”

He stopped swirling the glass. It was still, almost supernaturally so.

“Jay…”

“Ja _son_.”

“I’m not trying to undermine your feelings, but I don’t think you understand what happened when you left.”

“I was murdered.”

“ _After_ you were murdered.” Dick corrected himself, nodding his head. “Bruce became obsessed with the Joker. He did everything he could to make sure the Joker couldn’t do anything to hurt anyone else-“

“Except kill the bastard.”

“You should know better than anyone that Bruce isn’t capable of killing anyone.”

“I was his fucking partner!” Jason threw the glass on the ground. The glass shattered on contact. “ _I_ was there when he needed my help! _I_ was there to save his ass when he needed me! I stood by his side, I fought with him, we _saved_ lives!” He was on his feet now, anger and adrenaline running through his veins. “You think I don’t know about all of Bruce’s damn _morals_? I know why he won’t kill any of them, he’s got this idea that he’ll go all dark side. He thinks _I’m_ his dark side. There’s no _excuse_ anyone can give that will make me forgive that my death wasn’t enough to _end the life of that FUCKING bastard!_ ”

Dick watched, his eyes widened. He hadn’t been there to hear Jason talk to Batman. He hadn’t been there to hear Jason’s side of the story. All he’d known was that Jason killed and Batman, Dick, Tim, Damian… they didn’t. “Jason…”

Jason’s whole body was shaking in pure anger. There were tears from all the rage welling up in his eyes. Jason must’ve realized they were there because he turned around and walked to the other door leading into the hallway and back to his bedroom. “Get the fuck out.”

“I didn’t realize…” 

“Bruce sent you here.” 

“He didn’t.”

“Then why _are_ you here?”

Dick was silent, quietly looking out the kitchen window instead of at Jason. “I… was honestly worried about you. I heard about everything that had happened when you returned, but I never got the chance to actually talk to you. I never got the chance to ask you… how you were. I guess it’s obvious now.” Finally, Dick pushed from the chair and walked around the table.

“Don’t come near me.” There was some bark to it, but no bite. Jason was tired. 

Dick hesitated for a moment, gently pulling Jason back into a hug. 

Neither of them said anything, there wasn’t anything to say.

Jason’s voice, when it finally broke the silence, sounded sleepy. It sounded like he was going to pass out. “Don’t break into my house again.”

“If I knock, will you answer?”

“As long as we don’t talk about this shit every single time. I don’t need to talk about this.”

“What do you need?”

Jason pulled out of Dick’s hug, still not quite looking at him as he turned his head to talk over his shoulder. “I’m determined to serve _my_ justice. If I get the chance, I’ll go in for the kill. I’m determined to help Gotham. I’m determined to be better than Bruce ever was. I know what Gotham needs and I need it too.”

Dick sighed. “Get some rest. It’s probably stupid to promise this but…”

“Don’t promise. Too many of those get broken.”

Dick shook his head. “You’re right. Saying something like ‘I’ll make sure the Joker doesn’t get you in your sleep’ is really stupid, huh?”

“Especially if you plan on hovering over me.”

Dick chuckled. “Alright… but I’ll say this.”

Jason turned around a little more. “What?”

“There’s a lot going on with you. I get that. We might not see eye-to-eye about how you’re doing things, but you’re trying to help people. It’s obvious. If you need help or if you need me for anything, you know my number.”

Jason chuckled. It sounded sad. “Alright.”

Dick nodded. “Get some sleep, alright?”

Jason didn’t reply, simply walking round the corner and out of sight. 

The door clicked closed and Dick sighed, walking over to the kitchen window and opening it, slipping out. His eyes instinctively moved to the left, watching as Jason removed his white t-shirt, removing his pants next, and almost the moment he touched the bed, he stopped moving. His legs were splayed off the bed, the upper half of his body resting on top of the bed sheet.

The vigilante laughed, shaking his head at the sight. “G’night, Jay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Jason Todd or Dick Grayson or Batman. 
> 
> Like what you see? If you're interested in commissioning me, please check my website: http://jesselwolfe.wix.com/wolfeinc


End file.
